Sunday, January 31, 2010

Instead of being in full bloom this past week, the temperatures and wind chills seem to have made the witch hazel have second thoughts. The flower petals seem to be trying to crawl back into the buds. No, I don't blame them. (It was -18˚ C (0˚ F) when I was out running yesterday morning.)

Monday, January 25, 2010

I found this Red Hellebore (Christmas Rose) bud in the Woodland Garden at the RBG last Friday under some leaves. I would not have seen it except I knew where it grew and cleared off some leaves to see if anything was happening. Yes, I covered it up again as there will be more cold and snow before it blooms.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

This is the Brevipetala Witch Hazel, also called Chinese Witch Hazel. This particular bush grows in the RBG Woodland Garden just below the Rose Garden. It was almost in bloom on Friday, January 22 when I walked by.

Last year it was in bloom already on New Year's Day. Other years it has waited until February.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

There were many round holes in a log I was inspecting on my Friday walk and this exoskeleton was hanging on just by one of them. I have no idea what the animal was but I found the left overs interesting.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Part of the "Glass Under Glass" show that officially opens today at the RBG. We were there yesterday so it was not all up and the names of the artists were not all available. I'll put up the name after my next visit later this week.www.rbg.ca/pages/GlassExhibit.html

Monday, January 04, 2010

This is another photo from 1978 when I went to a camp north of Thunder Bay, Ontario for a course in winter survival. We slept out in snow shelters called quinzhees which were made by piling up loose snow, letting it settle, and then hollowing it out to make an igloo shaped structure in a place where igloos could not be made. (One needs solid wind swept snow to cut blocks for making an igloo.) Temperatures inside the snow shelter were just above the freezing mark while temperatures outside dropped to - 30 C. The hard part was getting up in the morning and going out to start fires for breakfast.

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About Me

I have wandered, walked, run, backpacked, cycled, and skied several thousands of kilometres in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa, and the South Pacific.
I have also canoed through many lakes and rivers. I have wandered as far north as the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories of Canada and as far south as the South Island in New Zealand. I have wandered to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and to the tops of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Ben Nevis in Scotland, Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and many other mountains in the Appalachian chain.
My longest walk was a 700 kilometre (435 mile) backpacking summer on the Appalachian Trail. My most challenging canoe trip was through most of the length of the Churchill River in Labrador.
Regardless of my foreign wanderings many of my most pleasurable wanderings have been within 10 km (6 miles) of wherever I happen to be living.
In words from the character Samuel Hamilton in John Steinbeck's East of Eden, "I take a pleasure in inquiring into things. I've never been content to pass a stone without looking under it."